Looking for Input on a Map Layout

Stormcaller3801

L5: Dapper Member
Jul 5, 2009
249
28
So I figured I'd take my own advice and try to work out a map layout by picking a pattern and going from there. Here's the basic pattern I grabbed, with color-coded areas.

MapLayoutIdea1a.gif

Orange being rock, red and blue being buildings appropriately themed, grey being ground. I'm thinking the spawn areas would be off-map, relative to the play area, stuck at the top and bottom. It's laid out more or less in a 13x13 grid, which can be scaled up and down as needed (I'm thinking each square would be 256x256, putting the playable area at roughly 3328 units in diameter, or 8.32 seconds across for a Scout, 41.6 seconds across for a Heavy with the minigun spinning) and probably about three squares high.

I haven't given it any more thought than this, save considering some hard ceilings in areas, and figuring I could run various paths through the rock and buildings.

Here's what I'm looking for input about:

What sort of game type do you think this would work best for?
Do you think the map's flow is good?
Do you think this would be a royal pain in the butt to map?
Would you suggest any changes or tweaks to the layout?

And of course, any flashes of inspiration are welcome.
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
aa
Jul 31, 2009
1,590
410
It's hard to say from just that, except that the center will be sniper alley and anyone spawning shouldn't have to walk into it to get anywhere.
 

Sgt Frag

L14: Epic Member
May 20, 2008
1,443
710
Obviously it's gonna be more suited to arena or koth. The other maps types are more suited to linear designs.

Like Terr said, sniper alley. One thing you could do would be to make the buildings in sniper alley go all the way to the side and block one path there on top and bottom. So instead of 2 lines more like one zig-zag.

You'd still end up with a line of about 2048 units with the size you stated, which is still a very long straight area.

Then there's the issue with the circular path around the outside. 3,000 units is fairly big, so that's gonna leave alot of running time in the middle of nowhere and it won't see much action out there.
 

Stormcaller3801

L5: Dapper Member
Jul 5, 2009
249
28
Oh, I'm not planning to leave those so you could snipe from outside one spawn to the other. There'll be things to break up sight lines and so on. This is just the basic pattern of the map and the major pathways to move around it.
 

Zwiffle

L6: Sharp Member
Jun 24, 2008
269
161
Well I suppose this is a layout in the broadest sense. I honestly don't know what to make of it - if your project is to pick a seemingly random and boring pattern and turn it into a map, then ... sure. If you're trying to make a full map, this doesn't seem to be the best way to go about it, but I'll try to offer feedback anyway.

I think this would be incredibly easy to map, since you would really only need to map one quadrant of it at a time, and that quadrant would be incredibly easy to map as it is.

It looks best suited for Arena I think.

I can't say the flow is good or not, but depending on how big the outside circle is, that can sort of function as a long line of site, which someone already mentioned the middle is great for snipers, and I imagine the outside circle would be as well.

My honest feedback is that this 'layout' is incredibly unimaginative, and just down right boring. I don't see how this could make a good TF2 map. I would recommend spending the time coming up with something more interesting and dynamic than a quadrant flipped 3 times, there are plenty of examples out there of desirable layouts.
 

Stormcaller3801

L5: Dapper Member
Jul 5, 2009
249
28
Ideally no two quadrants would be identical, save at this level of detail; I'd be treating each building as its own project to be dealt with, and not mirroring those. Same with random details and props scattered about the map.

As for the main routes through, again, I would not be leaving open sightlines. The central square would be roughly 768 x 768, with various props such as trucks, corrugated metal walls, and so forth providing cover. In addition, the two main routes I intended to add walkways and stairs to, along with various props and possibly a 128 wide strip of buildings against the rock walls, which would basically reduce the paths to 128 wide, and along with the aforementioned stairs and walkways and so on would be very difficult to shoot down. Your visibility would be limited. There's also the option to simply travel through the buildings, which would eliminate a number of problems, I'd think.

I've been considering the side areas more.

MapLayoutTest2.jpg

I hate converting to jpeg format.

In any case, the side caverns (one of them with the top hidden above) would have some fairly generic/Egyptian ruins built into the walls, while the area outside these areas would be more standardized TF2 red rock and desert themes. Each rock wall would feature a temple of sorts, which would contain a gate. As Dr. Evil would say, a "Star-gate," if you will. These act as teleporters back and forth to one another, allowing you to cross the map without actually crossing the map. Which would further reduce the need to venture into the center that everyone's worried about, save for if there was an objective there.

I arbitrarily picked a total height of about 768, with the cavern height being about 640 and the buildings being 512. The curved paths to get to these caverns run about 1408 long at the inside wall, meaning a Scout would make the trip in around three and a half seconds, give or take. I could probably trim that down by cropping out chunks and then reworking it all.

MapTest2.png

Something like that. Extended buildings, cropped out other buildings due to lack of space, the diameter of the map (excluding spawn areas) is down to 2304, meaning most classes can cross it in roughly eight seconds down the center line.